Why Boltcaster Is Even STRONGER Than You Think! New Bow Artifact vs Syncretic Bow ⚔️New World

The Bow Artifact, Boltcaster, is on New World Season 4 PTR. This bow deals almost pure lightning damage and can stun targets at full health. In this video, I show off the true power of the stun, talking about its aoe and internal cooldown. I also compare the Boltcaster to a BiS Syncretic Bow in terms of damage output, both without and with an Artifact offhand.
❤️PATREON: / dukesloth
00:00 - Start
01:11 - Stun vs abilities
01:36 - Stun AoE Test
01:56 - Stun Internal Cooldown Test
02:32 - Stun Limit-Testing
03:44 - Boltcaster Damage vs BiS Bow
04:45 - What was tested? Dex/Int splits
06:16 - Damage test results - Basic attacks
08:03 - 300 DEX 150 INT
08:37 - Damage test results - Rain of Arrows
09:27 - Takeaway so far
10:06 - Implications of full lightning damage
11:45 - Artifact offhand vs Boltcaster
12:45 - What does that mean for Boltcaster?
14:05 - What I'd rather see
Sources: New World Database: nwdb.info/
#NewWorld #Boltcaster #Bow
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MORE SLOTH:
PATREON: / dukesloth
TWITCH: / dukesloth
DISCORD (New World): / discord
TWITTER: / dukeslothtv
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Songs:
Paul Leonard-Morgan - Bells of Laguna Bend

[@StatusPia]

Cannot gem the boltcaster, cannot run attunement on the boltcaster, cannot equip with another artifact that would benefit the bow. What do you mean no trade-offs? Been a bow player for the past two years, but after seeing all the info, I don't think this is going to be my new main weapon. Aside from that, being able to AoE stun is stupid and should be removed.

[@rabyjrm]

I agree, I’m fine with most. But stun probably should apply to first target hit only.

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

The stun is not even bad. Onyl when they full hp. So many dots going around that it prob won't happen often enough and if the stun did go off, it would vanish quickly because so many aoe. It's only gonna be good in 1v1 or 3v3 if the team is coordinated

[@wwommy]

you make really good videos. ive checked out all the new world youtubers and you are the best. just really had to tell you this because i know youre always pumping out videos even when the game was dead

[@DukeSloth]

Thanks a lot!

[@GP-ur6if]

Thanks for the quick break down, this is important to keep tract of

[@azznok]

One thing that hasn't been taken into account in this test is that syncretic bow will be able to get the new runeglass, this is a big damage difference since new runeglass scale 50% damage AND ele dot compare to 40% and dot from now

[@ab3240]

Even bigger when you realize he excluded the DoT from the tests.

[@nomaq9956]

link to new runeglass?

[@threeve1282]

"It would be a buff to the bow to extend the sacred duration" When I heard that I died 😂🤣💀

[@Raidan988]

Cool testing, thanks for your work. I dont think it takes into account enough the extra bow dmg against dot'd opponents, but information is helpful enough to make a decision on what im going next patch. A cool rework idea: Instead of ranged stun, the bolt caster should be able to interupt (not stun) enemy abilities/animations with only bow abilities, and then the bow ability has ab increased CD on hit. This gives bow a ranged utility factor instead of just burst and dot dmg builds.

[@TheBookerDeWitt]

I personally will mainly still be running Lifetaker/Syncretic, but will also be looking to try a glass cannon build with the Boltcaster

[@johanjansson1608]

Do anyone know if Enchanted ward still work vs the Bolt caster? Its not doing thrust dmg anymore but normal attacks should still count as Light/Heavy attack where enchanted ward works right? Asking since I’m planning my gear for S4.

[@Exprovider-Cahit]

Love your videos. I have a question What do you think about Elemental Aversion vs Enchanted Ward for Light armor? Which one has more EHP?

[@DukeSloth]

Thanks! EHP between the two is fairly comparable, it depends mostly on what you're getting hit by more. So it depends on role and game mode.

[@bobdemyer9887]

​@@DukeSlothEHP??

[@MrHawk88]

Hey DukeSloth, were you able to test if walking into a poison shot area (not direct hit), and full hp, also stuns?

[@abearthemedname]

Could be worth testing but my guess is that the poison shot aoe is only poison/nature damage, so no stun?

[@MrHawk88]

@@abearthemednamethe aoe dmg is also lightning since its just like having a lightning gem in the weap but it may be only on direct hit

[@DukeSloth]

@@MrHawk88 Didn't get around to checking that, sorry! Very interesting question though.

[@Gaming-Hollow]

What if i make the Boltcaster my secondary and i pump my musket to the max with harnesing?😮

[@DeityVengy]

Love you Duke but no runeglass basically invalidates all the damage testing you did unfortunately. You have to count the initial proc of the 8% runeglass DoT as part of the burst. Syncretic/Runewood with Runeglass beats Bolt in nearly every situation and that isn't even accounting for the hard ele aversion meta in season 4

[@DukeSloth]

If you do single shot damage testing with Runeglass, you invalidate your testing more than including it ever could. I already included attunement which is on CD, if I also included Runeglass it would absolutely misrepresent how much DMG the sync bow does in any actual combat scenario.

[@nib6383]

^ deity with the truth bomb

[@brick9798]

How? the single shot comparison should absolutely include runeglass dots, especially when all bow players care about is the upfront burst dmg. Single shot heavy comparisons should absolutely include runeglass dot. @@DukeSloth Boltcaster can't run a gem, so the runeglass dot is a very important point of consideration when deciding between sinking gold into a sync loadout or boltcaster loadout in s4.

[@DeityVengy]

@@DukeSloth The Runeglass DoT has no cooldown and procs on every hit. There's no situation where a target won't be hit by 1 tick of the 8% DoT in any actual combat scenario. You have to count that initial 8% tick as part of the single shot damage. They happen at the exact same time. The lack of a gem slot on Boltcaster is the main reason why everyone is doing less dmg with it compared to Syncretic

[@DukeSloth]

To expand on that a little: Attunement is on a 1.5s CD, Runeglass is on a 1/s tick. I could exclude attune and include Runeglass, but that would result in lower damage. Treating every shot like it'll freshly proc both does not at all give us a good idea of the normal damage of these weapons. And for the Emerald tests it would even cut into base damage. At that point, I'd have to account for Shirking Lightning as well and add a portion of that to the calc, which would lead to very similar overall results. As you can see, with offhand Artifact Syncretic Bow generally already somewhat ahead in damage. You can easily add the Runeglass dot to that manually if you're inclined to do so, it's a single step and most certainly doesn't invalidate all of the tests done here. At the end of the day, none of that is particularly relevant when one of the weapons comes with a 0 CD stun against targets with full health and the other doesn't.

[@0xNobody]

cant wait till I get the new games. My musket/fs will shine even more.

[@BeeBopGaming]

The amount of detail you go into is amazing. Great video like always.

[@PoProstuRylu]

what is cooldown on this perk Shriking lightning ? After every dodge my hits deal extra 45% lightning dmg?

[@ctaylor8003]

It's like all shirking. It's when you actually dodge damage, not when you press shift

[@moo8698]

No. It has a cooldown. It's about 6 secs. It doesn't say on shirking dmg perks but it has a cd. (Otherwise, ppl would have used it all the time. 99% of the people don't bother to use it.)

[@apolegetics2023]

bro went 3,2,1 "youtube ad" XD way to make me wait

[@MorcegoYar]

i think the stun will be reworked before goes live, i dont think it will stack with amulet, but lets see, devs seens to like to overpower ranged light users, its aready hard to get close to bow users, and know will be even harder, but we need to count the restriction forbbiding the user of lifetaker with the bow, soh maybe the dmg of the bow will not put that much dmg with out the lifetaker, or finisher

[@GhostManOnSixtieth]

It’s not hard to gap close a bow player who is actually a threat, because they’re locked while turning to shoot, if you play any gap closer abilities…

[@Griffonyx]

@@GhostManOnSixtieth if your getting killed by melee you need to practice your high frame

[@MorcegoYar]

@@GhostManOnSixtieth but if you spend too many skils to close the gap and actualy start doing dmg, the amount of skill you have to use after the gap is breatch is not enougth since you only have a total 6 skills, if you spend 3 or 4 skills just to actualy get close, once you are near your dmg is not enougth to kill the enemy, you need to remember that once you are close you need to actualy not miss the skills and be prepare since you oponet will try oto avoid the skills

[@DISSAOR666]

@@MorcegoYar but you can put slow on them, also hitting make them not able to run by 1.5 sec, then is just to spam light attacks

[@MorcegoYar]

@@DISSAOR666 yea the slow (if you land it) is one less skill to use and do more dps, plus the skill you need to run foward after the archer, plus one skill you need to have to defend in case of distress, plus one more skill to close the gap because after you get close usuly they will use one of their skill to run, plus they are on ligth soh they can roll away, and the meele need to be in heavy or mediun soh you dont die in the way to getting close, and after all that you my try to span ligth atacks and hope he dies, come on, since you dont understand the struggle i can say you dont play bruiser or a meele assassin, you are probably a ranged, magic, tank or healer... try a meele assassing or a bruiser you will see what i am talking about, with all that you will have to deal with the slow the enemy will put on you btw. and now the bow user have stuns that not even uses one skill, and can counter you skills to rush foward... i can assure you its not that fun to play againts bows or fire mage

[@JoshRice]

Didn't they change Stopwatch to a flat 1s increase to stuns this week? It's not showing on NWDB but it's in the patch notes on the website.

[@DISSAOR666]

yes and for that reason stun on boltcaster is 1.5 sec instead of 1 sec

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

​@@DISSAOR666which is fine if you arnt at full hp. If be most scared of the other weapons with 3-6 second stuns with gap closers.

[@heranef3594]

What happen if you get max freedom(80% i think) ? does the stun last 0.1 second or does it disapear ?

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

I think there's a limit a stun or slow can be reduced to

[@DukeSloth]

Unless this coded entirely different from other abilities, you'd still get stunned for a brief duration (which is the most important part, the quick interrupt).

[@McDudes]

Wait what the 2 stuns in a row doesnt trigger a light roll?

[@p4th0s_]

The new world community has complained since day 1 about anything ranged. The only thing powerful about this bow is the same way abyss can be powerful, you can dual stat. People are just mad that there is a new bow where they can't res stack against thrust and cover all ranged. The INT gem changes are what people need to worry about. 50$ conversion,but 90% scale if higher. That 90% means a huge direction in play any weapon you want with a focus or int stack. Spreadsheet, you could drop to 400 dex with very minor dps loss but a huge survivability increase. Bolt caster is basically a forced glass cannon bow.

[@mattm3243]

L Take.

[@ab3240]

@@mattm3243 Good argument

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

I mean they complained about range even when great axe/war hammer in heavy armor was running the meta.

[@aselfik]

how to get this bow ?

[@victorHy1]

Hi man, thanks by the great video! What you think about use 237 int with gem, so the gem will escalated with the high int and will upgrad the damage at 213 point, plus 169 of the bolt, doing final damage 354. Use 250 dex and 150 con. If use the eletric gem, will upgrad for 424 final damage. Even against elemental aversion, gonna do a great damage. Considering 50 dex represent 6% damage at the bow and the perk of 250 its a damage perk, 424 VS 236 damage its a large difference. Its 79% extra damage. This int gonna upgrad the rapier damage, its a good combo. I thinked twice if should say this because i believe its gonna be the future OP build, especially for magic DPS. Sorry by the poor english, i did my best.

[@ikingipapa]

happy you're still doing new world vids, i still love that gamer but don't play it much anymore. miss your smite vids too

[@Griffonyx]

It should be direct hit stun so it's improve the direct hit build for the bow without the zone one.

[@engomass]

Disregarding the stun, i dont think the bow is that good. In live i do 10k dmg on the dummy. With the lightning i do 12k in ptr. But i got the dot from the opal which gives me 1k dmg+. So giving ~10% damage for giving 5 armr perks (harnesing) are may not that good

[@engomass]

Plus you cant use the rapier or void artifact. Another plus for the thrust build

[@DISSAOR666]

@@engomass personally i am glad about boltcaster, will make people build vs lightning / hard ele dmg, and the dmg output from classic bis will rise in consecuence, is a win / win situation for bow players.

[@engomass]

@@DISSAOR666 100% true. I hope they give up some thrust resistance so we can rise again hahahaha

[@scottvaughn6385]

the perm stun is not gonna be a thing how aften is an archer gonna stand close enough to a healer and not be pushed by some one else. if you were further out the travel time of the arrow would allow them to move before the next stun shot

[@wenmoon9466]

So the variance of 2-3% - not that OP as people were thinking

[@iFINNIX]

I really wish instead of a stun it would have had some aoe chain lightning effect so it was more useful in PVE

[@iFINNIX]

And I just heard you suggest that exact thing in the video 😅

[@riccardoavantiela5147]

they will add this aoe and remove the stun, cause it was to annyoing

[@iFINNIX]

@@riccardoavantiela5147 they aren’t adding an aoe, the new passive is gaining a charge when an ability hits a target and when you get 3 charges you get a big pop of damage. Gonna be fun spamming rapid shot on bosses 🤩

[@killpo_1]

They should work interrupts into the game. This shouldn't be a stun but it should be a way of interrupting a cast / channeled skill. They could also just go for the theme of Lightning Damage currently and when it hits a full health target it applies a some debuff with Stamina (since most Lightning NPCs affect the stamina bar).

[@GP-ur6if]

anything else other than a stun would be a better idea, haha. Interrupts would still be strong and probably OP but at least not super annoying!

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

Then take all stuns off all other weapons. Most of the them have a 3-6 second stun.

[@GP-ur6if]

​@@preemptivefaceplant5277 oh yeah, 3-6 seconds, all of them...

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

@@GP-ur6if just about

[@kurtdha]

You forgot lightning runeglass on armor, which adds ANOTHER 10% extra lightning damage. This is in comparison to the melee runeglass which only gives you 5% extra melee damage AND has a 1 second cooldown, whereas the 10% extra lightning damage runeglass has zero cooldown and does twice the amount of damage.

[@DukeSloth]

Hmm interesting point. I haven't looked into sighted runeglass in particular and how it interact with ele splits, will have to check that.

[@kurtdha]

@@DukeSlothnot talking about sighted runeglass. I’m talking about runeglass of electrified in armor.

[@uroskojic8512]

@@DukeSloth ah yes this is interesting but the fact u didnt include runeglass when you did these tests isnt xddd

[@epicexx5114]

If the devs launch with the stun I will be convinced that AGS dosnt actually know what there doing and there not just completely incompetent. Duke been watching you way way back smite videos. Could you imagine there being an ADC with a ranged stun, that had no icd??

[@danielemeenike3281]

They made that pretty clear 2 years ago 😅

[@ab3240]

League has ADCs with ranged stuns and the full HP requirement here does way more to stop successive stuns than a icd ever would. It's a massive conditional. You don't even want to proc your stun more than once on a target because your job is to kill your target lol. Bows and MOBA ADCs are also not remotely comparable. Bows do not scale with supports in this game. Bruisers do. Bows are more comparable to assassins (yes, assassins can be ranged) or even artillery mages than they are to ADCs.

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

If you believe that you are an idiot. There are multiple weapons with 3-6 second stuns and those same weapons have gap closers. The bow literally only gets a half second stun. 1.5 second stun if and only if your hp is topped up. So unless you are being pocket healed healed which at that point the bow user won't kill you. You should not have to worry about the stun.

[@chas9118]

This bow will be useful in limited scenarios but will always be outperformed by bows that can split damage in the case of war. Lightning is not often mitigated against but with the recent buff to ele aversion, this bow will do significantly less damage against BIS war players who have 5 ele aversion. Which is common for nearly every war company at the moment even on dead servers

[@Ninjabeanss]

Is there a reason you didn't test the syncretic bow with a runeglass?

[@bahriceylan5199]

cuz with runeglass it'll out dmged the artifact and this melee abusers want to get rid of that stun kekw just bullshit they talked about art VG and art rap + bis bow way better than boltcaster alone

[@ab3240]

hes a melee shill what did you expect

[@avendreams2057]

add a 1s stun on every enemy you haven't attacked in the last 10 seconds, then it will be good for both pvp and pve, since on pve lightning damage is crazy good on Ancient (Ennead/Lazarus/Starstone)

[@drtranzocs]

In those tests ROA Deals more damage only with 1 enemy hit, but only for attunement, keep in mind that it procs only one time while hitting X enemies simultaneusly ( afaik ), meaning that all those tests are the best case scenario for Syncretic bow, so in a clump / arena, ROA from the boltcaster should deal more total damage. Same thing for 2 light attacks BTB or heavy + pen/explosive/poisonshot( only 1 attunement tick will proc ). Even without harnessing, runeglass and ring, boltcaster almost outclasses the syncretic bow in almost any scenario, i talked with a lot of bow player finisher is not actually the optimal rapier to use for the limitation of abilities, but right now the damage boosts outweight the negatives, now you can play the rapier you wish without much compromises if you use it more offensively. Oh, and your secondary now will also fully benefit from the lightning damage increase given by boltcaster, which is a non conditional 10% ( idk if it's multiplicative with the 150 int ) compared to the finisher. Yes, it needs a nerf in damage and in the sun make it 10% more lightning damage and it staggers and call it a day.

[@ab3240]

I don't think you understand the dmg formula. Which I don't blame you for because it's not explained anywhere. But the runeglass DoT essentially provides 15% base damage to your next hit due to the mark and 50 int passives, even if your jagged is on cd/you dont crit/etc which does a lot to offset the 20% lightning dmg on the new bow. Your point about RoA is true but bow has never been the weapon for doing meaningful dmg to clumps. It's good at padding though. All base dmg scaling is additive.

[@drtranzocs]

@@ab3240 i honestly don't understand why you are bringing runeglass in the equation tbf. What part of the comment are you referring to ? And for ROA, in 3v3 and, in general, 1vX, it matters.

[@ab3240]

@@drtranzocs "Even without harnessing, runeglass and ring, boltcaster almost outclasses the syncretic bow in almost any scenario" This just isn't true. If you land an opening shot on your opponent and don't crit while using boltcaster, they are never debuffed for your followup shot. With a runeglass, they are always debuffed for your followup shot. This procs the mark passive and 50 int passive, which adds up to 15% base damage that you get with a runeglass but not with Boltcaster. Then the runeglass itself is worth almost 2x what attunement is worth. You need to run glass cannon w/ super high empower for boltcaster to do more consistently. It's nice to have but ultimately bow is not the weapon for AoE damage and it's really hard to multitarget with a bow compared to a FS or something. The odds of the extra damage on a secondary target mattering are just really low. It's pad.

[@drtranzocs]

@@ab3240 I was actually referring to the runeglass on your armor that boosts, damage, that's ehwere the misscomprension lies. Realistically, in 90% of the scenario, the enemies is already affected by DOT, in a 1v1 scenario ok maybe, but it's almost irrelevant. So again, is 15% damage ( conditional and by DOT effects ) vs 20% plain more damage ( that applies on the other weapon as well ), it just isn't comparable damage wise in most scenarios. And in arena happens a lot to get 2/3 target with ROA, and i mean a lot, even in OPR you can kite 2 melee and use it effectively, but this also applies to explosive arrows, and ( if you use it ) all 3 shots of rapid-shot ( attunement would only proc once there if i'm not mistaken ).

[@ab3240]

@@drtranzocs Not sure if you're just dropping abilities on clumps or exclusively play with stacks in OPR but if you can't apply pressure to the enemy backline solo then you're useless. If you need another teammate to put a DoT on them to get 15% base damage for yourself, you're really not going to be able to apply as much pressure unless you open on to them with an ability with a DoT rather than a heavy. This really screws up your combos and how bows generally want to use their CDs. Also 5% base damage in boltcasters favor is not very much base damage. This difference in damage instantly disappears if your opponent has more than two pieces of ele aversion since it's roughly twice as effective vs boltcaster as it is vs a split build w/ finisher. Ele aversion priority is going to be insane next patch. If you hit 2/3 people in Arena with RoA, you don't need boltcaster to win. They're literally all bots. Same thing if you hit them with it while kiting unless they play heavy armor or are out of stam. Ability is piss easy to dodge if you see it being cast.

[@theChungusMaximus]

I dont think it is correct to ignore Keenly Jagged in your damage table. Its first tick even happens instantly so you can at the very least add a flat 10% damage to all of these numbers. The rest of tick can be left out to cancel out shirking lightning. But all the non Bolt numbers in the chart should be +10% base damage which would show that syncretic bows do indeed deals more damage, which is in line with what we see and feel on PTR.

[@JowehhPlays]

I love bow but want the artifacts to enable different playstyles, currently this is just a stronger bow which falls into the same issue with Serenity just being a better GS.

[@JamyFowl0001]

Could have released a bow where it's range is -50% and it's dmg is -15% but it fires 33% faster. Close range focused bow

[@ab3240]

@@JamyFowl0001 Lmao that sounds so bad

[@ab3240]

@@JamyFowl0001At that point I'd rather be a skull dude in Laz that just beats people down with my bow like it's a club

[@JamyFowl0001]

@@ab3240 a 33% firerate boost is 33% more dps. So at -15% dmg it's still an 18% dps boost. Your drawback is range.

[@ab3240]

@@JamyFowl0001 Maybe in PvE? Have you ever even played the weapon before? Even from max range, you are never shooting arrows as fast as you can load them. You are timing your shots with their s, movement abilities, and dodging patterns. And from close range you can forget fire rate. You shoot as fast as you can kite. Bow does not have the stamina regen or movement options to kite and shoot as fast as what you're suggesting would allow. It's terrible and you've obviously never played the weapon.

[@razvanbreazu4020]

Syncretic bow + the finisher will outperform bolt DMG wise . To have a gem slot is huge

[@Malkaras]

I am 100% looking forward to this Patch and cant wait to try out the Bow

[@WhoFlungDung]

Haha, meee too!

[@CaseyBartley]

Like you said toward the end, a more PVE orented artifact bow would be great. I think the biggest issue with bow in PVE is effectiveness in mutations. Boss damage your going to want rapid fire, and the full dot build is better on mob packs but the cd's are all pretty long. Finisher / bow is really strong, but you can't stack rapiers in the group, and Lifetaker is wonderful on bosses but near useless on AOE situations or the rest of the mutation. WIth the art bow NOT scaling with INT like Mjolnir, it limits the offhand choices to basically rapier, musket and spear, rapier being easily the strongest but least likely because the rapier ART is better and you can't stack them. Now if we wanted a really good PVE bow, you would lean into strength as an exchanger for the scaling and just keep the thrust damage. This would promote some better offhand choices including the ability to scale the spear offhand, which is what tons of people want is a perfect bow/spear pairing. Also would promote the new Emerald. Maybe the added perk should be rapid fire gets splash lighting damage instead of the stun? That would give a large tradeoff and be much better in PVE, although Shirking would absolutely need removed for that to work as well, it's really trash for PVE. EDIT: The changes to Inferno art fire staff is a good example of sort of what the Bow needs for a more PVE focused weapon. 20% extra damage on the FS within 8m no ability perk locking? That is really good. Anything that creates synergy for your typical mutation (closer, splash damage). Normal light and heavy attacks not cleaving like melee is an issue as well for the bow in PVE.

[@echode6030]

The hammer doesn't scale with int.

[@CaseyBartley]

@@echode6030 yeah it probably should

[@WhoFlungDung]

As a pvp player, I would be very disappointed to get an artifact bow that's useless for pvp. I wouldn't mind if they took the stun off but I hope they don't shit on pvp players with this. Finisher is nice but I don't like tondo in pvp and I'd rather use a different rapier.l but the 15% bleed to both weapons is strong.

[@CaseyBartley]

@@WhoFlungDung Finisher is absolutely perfect for PVE full bleed build. As far as the bow goes, it's obviously problematic for PVP.

[@DynaPirate]

Bows don't have stamina, damage (unless they're glass canons) or any haste since haste timers end before the walk animation finishes (basically 3-5 sec slow from letting go of RMB, hopping over a small rock in the grass, or jumping from ramparts) so Purify might be better than Stamina Recovery at this point. Bows can't cleanse slows with the 300 Dex passive and literally every fight is 5+ players throwing multiple slows vs 1 bow. Since bows take 10+ shots to kill anyone now and a single melee only needs 2-3 auto attacks to kill a 200 Con bow, the stun doesn't seem overpowered. Especially since people will start timing their pot usage when fighting against it.

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

You should watch arrowii. Everything you said would be wrong haha

[@brick9798]

Should include a tick of runeglass and a tick of keenly jagged bleed. Also for the rain comparison tests, the attunement damage is applied to only a single target - the chart at first glance implies that the damage with attunement is the damage that would be applied to everyone in the target area. I understand you are just trying to provide a fair comparison - but these test numbers are not what people would encounter in practice.

[@darthasavage7213]

Eliminate any modifier on the .5s stun

[@jahloveinfla]

Boltcaster will likely be BiS for war and maybe OPR, the stuns seem to be extremely powerful in large scale PVP. outside of that it will still be useful but not overpowered imo.

[@McDudes]

I think its the other way around because in large scale theres more likely for someone else to hit the stunned target and make the stun go away early. Still annoying af though.

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

The stun is no better then any other weapons stun. This is actually worse because it has a limit of enemy has to have full hp. With dots being a big thing. Alot of people won't have full hp often

[@darthasavage7213]

wait They are going to allow Healers to scale weapons with focus wtf?!

[@r3mxd]

artifact will never be better than a syncretic bow

[@Fishwithhands162]

Opal gem armor meta

[@F3L0]

Deep Freez doesn't have trade-off either

[@MaleOreo]

Like your content DukeSloth but this is against dummies, in a real scenario so much more goes into it such as resistances being the most obvious. In season 4 most Dex & Healers will switch to run ele aversion then use their preferred gems. Most importantly offhand weapon such as Lifetaker which when paired with the Syncretic trumps the Boltcaster in damage on a player because of Disintegrate. Also splitting damage for ranged is good, all top bows run an elemental runeglass because if you get resisted by someone with 50% thrust that's only 1/4 the bow users output getting mitigated. While if the bow uses either full thrust OR Boltcaster they open themselves up to getting total damage mitigated and trust me people will stack lightning resistance to troll. The only 'OP' thing about the Boltcaster is the stun and thats only going to be good in 1v1 and 3v3 encounters and that's only when not facing another Dex as they can just weapon swap cleanse the stun. All in all the only thing that needs to happen is an Internal CD to the stun and only proc on one target at a time.

[@z_z_z_z_z]

+1

[@DukeSloth]

I specifically did a test with an offhand artifact, Finisher, in this very video. Sure, Lifetaker is stronger in certain situations, but it can't consistently be tested because the benefit of it varying between targets depending on armor and because of the further inconsistent bonus of Tether. Lifetaker is the much more consistent option that also provides you with more safety, so it's absolutely reasonable for comparison. You simultaneously argue that dex and healers will go heavily into ele aversion (debatable because ench ward is generally good even in S4) but also that going split gems to do more ele damage is good. If the meta was so ele-counter-heavy, going full thrust would be much more beneficial. And that would automatically result in people going more phys gems or thrust prot again. I didn't frame Boltcaster damage by itself as "OP". Watch the end of my video, I'm very clear about that. In its current state the stun is absolutely going to be good in wars as well. You can aoe disrupt anyone at full health on a point with a single Rain, which frequently affects multiple targets due to consistent healing. Weapon swapping to cleanse the stun doesn't make much sense, it's an 0.5 stun. The interruption of any animation would've already happened by the time you cleanse, so you'd at best gain a fraction of a second. The implications of a stun like that are much more significant for other roles anyways, including healers and melees.

[@MaleOreo]

@@DukeSloth The stun will get fixed/changed as mentioned that is the only issue with it. Other than that the Boltcaster is a mid artifact at best and won't be used competitively.

[@masterdoge]

Maleoreo tested it with Syncretic Bow and Syncretic Bow is still better

[@lewismurphy8650]

I don't get the balancing, some artifacts are op/meta defining then there are a lot that are completely crap and nowhere near as good and super niche. They need to do an artifact balance patch and change them.

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

To be honest if you are skilled. You could make any of the artifacts meta defining.

[@DonPascquale]

i dont get this game i know your friend is there to test damage on him but why you do like zero damage to him

[@igornogueira1344]

Hey duke whats up? i like your videos very much, but this one is simply untrue. Why? well boltcaster hasn't a gem slot, that being said you're loosing the runeglass D.o.T which also helps to proc "MARK" (bow skill tree) which adds 10% damage per debuff in your target (and the cap isnt 10%, it's 30% i believe), AND if you're using the bow artifact you're loosing the rapier too, so thats another 15% damage loss. Honestly from my point of view this bow is just trash, you're loosing alot of damage and due to the huge ammount of elemental damage people are shifting to elemental aversion which makes it even worse. Anyways, love your videos and i would like to see a new one about boltcasters with the considerations i added here if possible. Good luck!

[@tiki-ui9bj]

Absolutely needs a cd, it’s ridiculous that ags overlooked that

[@secondgen]

Must be new here, AGS overlooks EVERYTHING

[@tiki-ui9bj]

@@secondgentrue 😞

[@WhoFlungDung]

They'll add one eventually.

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

Don't be at full hp. Bam fixed your skill issue. Not hard in any pvp content.

[@tiki-ui9bj]

@@preemptivefaceplant5277 that is such a dumb response

[@tanniaz33]

🍾🍾

[@epicexx5114]

Really hoping that some of you respectable creators do the right thing and bang the table here. This will be toxic for the game. No doubt

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

It absolutely won't. Don't be at full hp. Fixed skill issue. Any dot will keep you from from hp. What really needs to be fixed is all the 3-6 second melee stuns with gap closers

[@planetg2125]

3..2..1.....then advertisement lol

[@darkday1702]

Add a fairly long CD to the stun, or make it a stagger with a long CD...then it's fine. Or just straight out remove that extra effect...and add something troll like refreshing move or a random unused weapon perk. Have to think, the bow meta, here lately, involves using the finisher or life taker. Finisher giving you a 15% damage increase on bleeding targets, and life taker adding DOT and a rend.

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

Enemy literally bypasses the stun if any aoe it's him or a dot hits him. Also can't use finisher if you using boltcaster....

[@darkday1702]

@@preemptivefaceplant5277 Correct, which is why most won't use bolt caster

[@Brawur91]

this perk is fully broken itself since the begining but what expect from the guys who do not even play the own game... and then they do this ...

[@nib6383]

the artifact bow is worse than syncretic. You're losing atunement, finisher 15% damage, and runeglass for a stun. and there will most likely be a heavy ele aversion meta s4 so bolt caster gets even worse with that taken into account

[@GP-ur6if]

Constant stuns are proven by past MMOs to be one of the most hated mechanics. This won't last, if it goes live as is the outcry will be massive, and the outrage would be warranted because it is horrible overall PvP gameplay. Hopefully they change it to something else before it goes live. Like an interesting game mechanic would be it permanently lowers your max health by the damage done for say 10 seconds. That would be very strong and yet not affect gameplay in a noticeable way. (not saying that is a good idea, just saying, there are other debuffs that new world devs could use rather than lazy stun)

[@WhoFlungDung]

They just somehow haven't figured out diminishing returns yet..

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

Wait so every melee weapon can have a long stun/ root and s gap closer but a range weapon gets 1 with a big stipulation of only when hp is full and now it's the most horrible thing in the world?

[@bonbarmandrink]

Can't wait for bow to destroy wars. Weapon has been op for all content except wars for years. Now its going to be op in wars still. Melees cant hide from ags bias on bow !

[@bobdemyer9887]

Lol your way too funny, lol 😅

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

Then you havnr played the game for long. Literally for the first year of the game, war hammer/great axe in heavy armor and any melee weapon/ life staff in heavy armor ran the meta. No range was safe. Range didn't become meta defining till around season 2. After the heavy armor it was basicly rapier/hatchet that ran the meta. Poison and rain of arrows didn't do much damage and explosive arrow wasn't a thing till season 2 because they had a different useless skill. Unless you were cracked, then bow was useless.

[@bonbarmandrink]

Pve players are delusional. I guess AGS knows his community

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

@@bonbarmandrink more like you are delusional .

[@syvanas]

All this game is need is diminishing return on all cc-s like in any proper game where devs give a flying F about PvP...

[@MrProbstandrew]

we have known for a while now, how strong this bow is.. it isnt even funny. on the ptr folks were hitting 11k heavies n such. not to mention a heap of other tech n symb this wep has.. like the 20% lightning damage +. also with certain gem setups.. so basically weapon way more powerfull then anything we have or have seen! and that from range. at the same time they nerf other cool new artifacts and tech n weps, that werent as sstrong as the boltcaster. (sting spear jav f.e.) i really dont get it.. bow really didnt need a huge damage buff! whats next? a huge damaged increased with extra perks FS!? lol

[@MelionCaliburn]

You do know the Boltcaster only hit those kinds of numbers is because people weren't running lightning protection or elemental aversion in PTR. The damage will be reduced when people swap from nature mitigation gems to lightning ones. Quit whining.

[@uroskojic8512]

I like how ppl are ignoring the fact that all we see in arena are heavy gs users with sns mostly...havent seen a med user whole day today and yesterday.Also wtf u talking about not being able to negate the dmg,ele aversion/ench ward + light prot on amulet..i already have slash/fire amulets that i swap and i think most ppl do also.Remove this dumb ass stun for 0.5 and dont touch the dmg on this thing.

[@alfredgreybeard]

We all know this bow will be broken OP... AGS will nerf mage and melee to make up for it.

[@snowdropfox5754]

Yeah as if Mage will ever get nerfs lmao, they are literally buffing everything around INT every patch

[@bahriceylan5199]

stop crying it wont be op art VG or art rapier with Bis bow better than this boltcaster

[@alfredgreybeard]

@@bahriceylan5199 found the bow bitch everyone

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

Haha this bow is far from op.

[@StealthBoyElite]

Yeh this is just broken game play, irrespective of its practical uses. But it clearly will have practical uses. A single bow player could stun lock any target in sacred. Several bows could conceivably stun lock an entire clump, if they chain their aoes. It doesn't even stop healing, it just locks the target. Entirely locks them. It's just such a clearly broken interaction. I can't even say it's that useful (as soon as someone starts killing the targets in sacred, the stun is no longer a thing) but it's just obvious troll fodder. And having the ability to cancel any initial attack with a left click is stupidly powerful.

[@p4th0s_]

**cancel ability if that player is at 100%. Almost as bad as getting staggered from a heavy attack as a bow user. 😂😂

[@schnid1561]

What would be the point of that though? Nobody would be dying. You'd all just be sitting there at full health accomplishing nothing.

[@bahriceylan5199]

you never get stun lock in sacred bow dmg should be less than sacred heal ....

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

Watch me beat your whole explanation. Aoe damage and dot damage. BAMMM wont be at full hp to stun. If the heals were toping him up fast enough for you to stun him agian. Then you weren't killing him to begin with.

[@opiate05]

Ohhhh silly NW devs. When will they learn about the concept of diminishing returns. /sigh

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

Because other games stuns continue even after you are hit. So diminishing returns was needed. Stuns vanish when you are hit by another source of damage in New world.

[@huntcringedown2721]

Stopwatch will give +1s now instead of 100%, so it will be 1.5s now

[@ctaylor8003]

He mentioned that with an infographic

[@huntcringedown2721]

@@ctaylor8003well he mentioned 1 second stun with words so that's why I wrote this

[@ctaylor8003]

@@huntcringedown2721 That patch was 24 hours ago so I'm assuming he didn't want to re record the video so he put in a text bubble for all the big readers out there

[@JamyFowl0001]

As a tank that regens like 1.2k HP a second passively and has huge elemental dmg resistance I'm scared of just getting permastunned in opr by bows because I regen to full HP and just get hit instantly again. Popping a regen potion will effectively permastun myself.

[@moo8698]

No. This video is highly, highly inaccurate. Nobody going to stun you always. You may get stunned every once in a while, but ot's gonna be more like a stagger in opr or arena because they will instantly dmg you after that. + you can grab your little shield and act as a tank.. I'm not a bow player, but im just saying if this stun bothers you, you should be scared to death when a warhammer is around. If there are multiple ones.. You better stay in town. For real. The stun on that bow is literally nothing. It literally doesn't provide anything to them. There's a single combo with it, but most likely a proper player would hit that even without this stun. For me, this stun is like it's not even there. It's nothing.

[@JamyFowl0001]

@@moo8698 that's the issue I'm worried about. Being chain staggered when trying to push the frontline up the hill from sun for example. I chug a regen serum and now I'm stuck staggering in place ever other hit. Sounds like cancer.

[@bahriceylan5199]

with block gettin literal 0 dmg from bows + leap+stun chain think about how cancer you are for a bow player than talk about this shit 0.5 isnt gona be problem to you@@JamyFowl0001

[@MelionCaliburn]

Being stunned from a shield for 5s is no better. Can't do shit and you're dead in 3 hits from a melee user, so what's the damn difference?

[@JamyFowl0001]

@@MelionCaliburn difference is risk involved. With an SnS you are in melee range, if you can hit them, they can hit you back. You can outplay them and kill them. 10+ bows stunning you from 50m+ is not at all comparable.

[@TheRealDionysos]

Why is the warhammer artifact so hard trash and bow gets the same thing on it with an extra stun and better perks? Stuns for ranged is just stupid. You make more dmg as range dd as melee dd. They only care about range dd and healers.

[@bahriceylan5199]

yea while hammer has stun in its kit like need more stun while bows Evade shot is useless shit easy to cancel bow need something like that stun thats all stop crying

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

It's a .5 sec stagger only if you full hp. You must not have played long. First 2 years of the game ran by melee only. War hammer/ great axe or any melee weapon/life staff. After that it was rapier/ hatchet. It evened out a bit but the GS came out and took the meta for a bit then range finally gained some traction with buffs. Then season 3 came out and every weapon is busted if you use it right.

[@jackperkelo840]

Stun its trash, change it perk omg!

[@Cernunn0s90]

As someone who has played New World since launch, and supported this game and seen it become better and better, despite all the problems along the way, if Boltcaster makes it into the game, I will quit, because that will finally prove to me that the devs have absolutely no idea what they are doing.

[@bobdemyer9887]

Lol cya 😅

[@MelionCaliburn]

Cry some more. Why should a shield bash get a 5s stun but a bow can't even have a .05s stun?

[@MelionCaliburn]

If a melee closes the gap and gets close to a Bow user they're dead within 3 hits of an auto tracking left click from a melee user.

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

You haven't played dftom the beginning if a range is getting a .5- 1.5 stun when most melee have a 3-6 second stun, gap closers and may even have a root. Get out of here with your weak ass excuse.

[@Cernunn0s90]

@@MelionCaliburn False, I run a very mobile assassin build, and the skill gap between bow users is HUGE. The best bow users are almost impossible to get a hold off, they are so slippery. The worse ones die as soon as you get onto them. If you're one of those bow users that dies whenever an SNS player catches you, then you have things to learn.

[@Ttam1312]

So yeah dots in general last way too late long, 21 seconds? Why? Cap it at 10 at most...bows in the "new" 3v3 is just cheese no skill. And yeah new pvp maps would be a great, like most games with pvp that have new maps...and game types. Killing the pvp community without maps and game types...not hard at all....let's go ags...

[@ab3240]

Gonna hardcore shill for bow because you seem to do the opposite in every vid you make. Not factoring passives from the bow tree or basic combos you'd do makes no sense when talking about how much damage the weapon will do relative to other options. Edit: YOU ALSO SKIP RUNEGLASS HAHA. I understand that you are simplifying this for your viewers and trying to make it easier to test but it is misleading. By negating all of the passives you'd normally have, you are stacking the deck in favor of boltcaster because its special lightning dmg bonus is non-conditional. And somehow the comparison to Finisher comes off as a footnote on this video when it is by far the most important one, and it actually did more damage in your test. That's what everyone is playing right now. Some other issues: - People run void prot solely for the void GA (VG is not a DPS weapon), and it does nothing else to any other weapon. Needing to run a mana weapon to proc its passive is not a tradeoff when the int bonuses are categorically better than the str ones anyway. If void GA is balanced while forcing this level of centralization, so is the lightning bow. Melee bias gonna melee bias though. People already run fire pots for firestaff/bb. It's really not a complex situation with this much ele damage. You run mostly opals for a baseline level of protection vs everything, void ammy if bruiser, elec ammy if ranged (or thrust ammy + ele aversion). Continue to carry fire pots. Or honestly maybe even gemstone dust at this point. Both? - Not having a runeglass in your bow makes it way harder to proc the mark passive and 50 int passive on your basic combos. This is a 15% base damage loss on the followup ability for boltcaster unless you proc rending headshot/jagged with your first attack, taking it's +20% base dmg down to a +5% relative to a runeglass build. If a finisher and boltcaster build both proc jagged on the opening hit, it's again a 5% base damage loss for a finisher build. The DoT alone is worth more than the base damage loss and in the vast majority of small scale situations where you're most worried about the followup ability on the stun, they're missing 15% base damage. Then factor in attunement and way lower ult charge too. Only way to avoid this reliance on HS/crit to hit an ability with a DoT on it as your opener. This is not the typical combo for obvious reasons. Wow, look at all of these tradeoffs! Edit: Also important to note that the 150 int bonus will apply to more of the boltcaster's damage than a split bow, but this does not apply to explosive arrow, which was already fully elemental. This can offset the base dmg difference more in boltcaster's favor depending on what ability is being used as followup. TL;DR: Actual tradeoffs are: No runeglass, no attunement, less ult charge, way easier to ward against damage profile, special perk is highly conditional (full HP), shirking lighting IS a bad secondary perk on a 150 int build, and straight up does not do more damage unless you go 150 int + harnessing (many people played 200+ con with full defensive perks before). I ain't about to tell you that putting an AoE stun on RoA sounds like a good idea but I don't get the impression you saw all of the tradeoffs the first time around.

[@bobdemyer9887]

Agreed 100%

[@admcpTV]

RIP. new world is dead for a reason

[@Griffonyx]

And even that a bow shouldn't stun. It's too strong

[@MelionCaliburn]

Why shouldn't a bow stun people? Lightning in other games comes essentially with paralysis. Same concept. Cry some more.

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

The stun only activates if they are full hp. So any damage or dot stops stun. Every other melee weapon besides sword has a stun and gap closer. Try being fair

[@phenixdwn]

the guy who created this bow and ALL the people who will make a build around it are the least creative people on the game lmao

[@Amayi1]

I don't think they care whether people call them that or not

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

Ahh yes, but the gravity well/ hammer slam that ran the first year of the meta was creative. How about the 6 second stun from shield and sword with a gap closer into great sword serenity. Yeah that's creative. Stop crying about a .5 second stagger. Cause if you get hit by it agian that just means you weren't gonna die in the first place

[@valiant719]

This is clearly broken, as we expected it to be.

[@Amayi1]

This is not broken, this is intended by the devs. It's definitely overpowered and unbalanced.

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

Not even haha, .5 sec stagger because you immediately get hit and doesn't activate agian unless you full hp means you weren't dieing anyway. Any dot stops this from activating. At that point it's. Asking issue on you.

[@larkwyll7351]

Whatever dev thought of this bow mechanic should be demoted and removed from any and all combat design of the game.

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

So should the gravity well. The stun from war hammer, the traps from musket, Net from BB, javelin from spear. Shield for sns. Every one of those have a root or stun that last twice as long as a .5 sec stagger that only works if you at full hp meaning and dot on you stops it.

[@larkwyll7351]

@@preemptivefaceplant5277 Max ranged dps weapons should not be able to spam stun enemies or clumps from afar. Its bad combat design. Bow barely has any tradeoffs. There's very little risk to playing the role in wars/opr. Bow is already too strong. Its a lousy idea to give it the best application of stuns and stun spam in the game as a max range dps weapon. The devs removed most of the staggers from bow for a reason before. They were very toxic.

[@preemptivefaceplant5277]

@@larkwyll7351 if I am in the clumps I will constantly be hit. Even if I'm not if I get hit by someone or I have a dot and I'm not at full hp. Guess what doesn't effect me? That's right, the bow stun. There tons of risks. One, you basicly need to be running light armor. Everyone's going to gun for you so if you miss your attacks or slow to react. You are dun for. Almost every melee has a gap closer so if you get hit by a slow from another source you are basicly dead on a 2 or 3 tap. You have to constantly know what's around you or its easy clap sauce. Actually the only stagger they removed was the rapid shot stagger. The jump still has its push back stagger and believe the penetration arrow has one...but can't remember. None of its other skills even had a stagger. Agian you have to be full hp. Which with wars and constant aoe and dots. Is not hard to avoid full hp.

[@larkwyll7351]

@@preemptivefaceplant5277 Pen shot had a stagger and was removed. 2/3 removed. Bow + Rapier + light armor = have to have broken mouse or keyboard to die in wars more than a few times if not a route. There are no tradeoffs. And yes bow will be spam stunning everone, it will be extremely toxic. Expect massive uproar over the bow spam stunning players from ranged once it releases if it stays as is. Extremely toxic concept.

[@jeremysumpter8939]

I think you don't even like this game...everything in this game you want nerfed...it feels like you want all of us unarmed...doing 1 damage and seeing who dies first in an hour

[@bobdemyer9887]

Sorry, I really love your videos, but it is SO obvious how biased you are against bow player's.

[@schnid1561]

Used to think your vids were pretty cool but lately it's become glaringly obvious how biased your takes on combat are. Your claim that Boltcaster has no significant tradeoffs compared to other artifacts is false - with Boltcaster you are trading lower damage for a .5 second stun. You also failed to account for the runeglass damage Syncretic and other bows can slot. You also consistently complain about bow being overpowered but in your recent videos it's clear you're a blunderbuss main which AGS has stated is the most overperforming weapon in pvp currently, so who's really abusing overpowered weapons here?

[@ab3240]

You don't get popular as a NW creator unless you shill endlessly for the melee players who can't PvP in any other game. His PvP combat takes are some mikey mouse shit. Probably peaked bronze in LoL.